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I've been thinking a lot about this recently.
I'm a serial procrastinator and a chronic underachiever. I have been my whole life, so it's deeply entrenched. I'm trying to break out of this, so I've been exploring topics of motivation and success.
I tend to agree with the common thread I've found, which is that goal-setting is absolutely crucial...the ol' "failing to plan is planning to fail."
We might know about our responsibilities or, in a general sense, what we want to do or what we want out of life, but without goals it's difficult to achieve these things. Goals give us a picture, they contextualize what we're doing so that our mind has an easy time figuring things out.
If we set out specific and realistic goals, our mind naturally gravitates to the things we need to do, and it becomes motivated to accomplish them.
We can also view our goals as a way of understanding the consequences of not reaching them. We can think of what would happen to us if we were to fail to reach our goals. We can also think of what would happen to those who are closest to us. Moreover, we can think of the great things that would happen if we were to reach our most important goals. I think this is what motivates me.
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Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön
Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot
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